1. Manish Sisodia asks Modi to say no to GM crop clearance

The Delhi government on Tuesday urged the Centre not to give clearance to cultivation of genetically modified mustard as allowing the agriculture technique for growing a food crop could pose threat to environment, soil, farmers, and consumers’ health.

While Sisodia said it was the duty of the Delhi government “to protect the rights of its citizens to cultivate crops of their choice”, the communication also holds political relevance as the issue of genetically modified crops is a burning issue in neighbouring Punjab.

Devastation of Bt cotton crop in Punjab due to a whitefly epidemic last year witnessed widespread protests by farmers.

The ineffectiveness of genetically modified (GM) cotton in light of epidemic raised concern among agricultural experts and farmers over the growing dependency on Bt cotton and their effectiveness. Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in Punjab early next year and the Aam Aadmi Party is eying the north Indian state as the next destination for political expansion.

In his letter, the AAP leader also claimed that scientists are conducting tests of GM crops in Delhi University labs without possessing a no-objection certificate from the Delhi government, which makes such tests illegal.

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture had raised concerns about such crops in 2012. The report of Technical Expert Committee, constituted by the Supreme Court, also raises concerns over it….We demand that government must make all reports and data related to GM crops in its possession public so that scientists, state governments, farmers and consumers could debate it,” Sisodia said in his letter.—

2. Political and other opposition to GM mustard intensifies

* Political parties, farmers want NDA govt to abstain from allowing planting of the crop, make biosafety test results public

A day after the Delhi government opposed Centre's possible assent to commercial planting of GM mustard, the CPI and many farmer associations, besides others across the country, joined issue demanding that the NDA government refrain from giving its nod and make the biosafety test results public.

Business Standard had reported that the government planned to secretively assess the release of the herbicide tolerant variety of mustard developed by the Delhi University (Click here to read the story). The meeting agenda, the deliberations and the biosafety data had not been put in public domain. That has not been done till date.

On February 2 the Supreme Court asked the attorney general to reply to a contempt notice alleging that the government was going ahead with the clearance to GM Mustard in violation of court orders that had asked for public disclosure of biosafety data on the crop that emerged from previous field trials. The petition had also alleged that in the process of trials and clearances the government had not ensured zero contamination from the GM mustard fields as required by the courts.

Many green groups have consistently opposed the introduction of GM crops, pointing to lack of information in the public domain, conflict of interest of some members on the clearance committee and allegedly unsafe technology being introduced in India which is a place of origin for Mustard.

The farmer’s unions collectively said, “The government is pushing unneeded, unwanted and unsafe GMOs on the farming community.” They noted that the state governments of all major mustard growing states in India, including BJP-ruled states, had opposed GM mustard earlier. They also expressed concern about the secretive processes adopted by the regulators and for not putting out biosafety data in the public domain.

While Bihar chief minister had earlier written to the central government opposing the move, D Raja, member of Parliament for the CPI, in a letter to the environment minister on February 3 demanded that the biosafety data should be made public. He noted that there were many other non-GM hybrids of mustard which provided greater yield and it was not clear why the government was promoting a technology that had traits of terminator seeds of herbicide tolerant variety which many government and court’s expert committees have opposed.

RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya along with Abhishek Joshi has also written to the environment minister Prakash Javadekar opposing the introduction of GM Mustard. They said that they took strong objection against, and deep concerns with regard to the secretive and hurried processing of GM mustard “environmental release” application and possible approval of GM mustard and added that NDA government has repeatedly asserted “Transparency & Accountability” as major “pivots” of its governance policy and these are ever seen to be grossly violated in letter and spirit.

Earlier the Delhi government had said that the Delhi University had conducted the trials in Delhi without the mandatory approval of the state government. It said it was opposed to the introduction of GM Mustard in Delhi as committed in its manifesto but the government was on the verge of illegally giving it a clearance without consulting states.